News and Notes 3/28

News and Notes

From Fourth Grade

Measuring Mathematicians

After many, many weeks of exploring the world of place value, numbers, and computation, this week the fourth grade mathematicians changed their focus.  We began a new topic of study: measurement.  Now is a good time for exploring this topic because not only does measurement give us a good place to apply our number sense and computation skills, it is also a fun, practical, and hands-on branch of math.  The fourth graders did a great job exploring and beginning to apply concepts related to customary units of measure.  From inches and feet to ounces and pounds, the fourth graders were introduced to lots of vocabulary.  These first few days are setting the foundation for the coming days and weeks when we will develop our skills as measuring mathematicians.

Poetry in Action

As we conclude our study of poetry, we took time this week to make poems come to life.  Each student selected one poem.  They analyzed their poems for different types of poetic language.  They wrote their poems with line breaks and pauses.  Then, they practiced and practiced reciting their poems.  Once the poems were stuck in their minds, the fourth graders found creative ways to visually represent their chosen poems.  Finally, the end of the week came and we were ready to present our "Poetry in Action" projects to our peers.  What a fun time of pulling together all of our poetry-reading skills! 

Attractive!

There are certain topics that tend to put a little twinkle in the eyes of a fourth grade learner.  This week, as we began our study of "energy" in science, we pulled out our kit of magnets.  Just one look at all the fun objects in the bin made the whole class come to life.  The fourth grade scientists did an amazing job questioning, predicting, exploring, and forming conclusions about magnets and their properties.  It was so exciting to see how enthusiastically the students approached this new topic of study.  In the coming weeks we will add light, heat, and electricity to our list of familiar types of energy.  Needless to say, the fourth graders found the study of magnets very "attractive" (pun intended)!

Researching

We have reached the time in fourth grade when the writers are faced with their first formal research project.  This week we started the process by selecting topics of personal interest - everything from pop stars to underwater sea creatures.  We then formulated lists of questions we had about the topic.  These questions will help guide us through the world of research.  In the end, we will have interesting facts formed into a formal five paragraph essay.  The fourth grade writers have started this exciting journey with great effort and enthusiasm!